TEHRAN - A team of Iranian researchers has performed a necropsy on a 900-year-old mummified skeleton, hoping to solve the mystery of the female body found in the central Iranian plateau.  

To investigate and identify whether the mummy may have contained parasites, soil, and sediments from the abdomen and chest as well as a few hairs were collected for a range of parasitological and mycological studies, Mehr reported on Friday. 

Being kept in the National Museum of Medical Sciences History in Tehran, the natural mummy was mummified due to climatic conditions and salt in the soil and was discovered in the central province of Yazd.

While practicing mummification of the dead was not common in ancient Iran, some natural mummies have been discovered across the country in recent years, of which salt men are the most famous.  

ABU/AFM